WASHINGTON – Two Russian billionaire friends of Hunter Biden were once again spared financial sanctions Friday, as President Biden announced the latest round of sanctions against a number of Vladimir Putin associates, the Post reported. Reported.
Around 500 Russian oligarchs, companies and third-country sanctions evaders were hit, but real estate developers Elena Baturina and Vladimir Yevtushenkov were once again spared from the list.
The White House did not immediately respond to the Post’s request for comment and has not provided any explanation for the men’s past avoidance of previous sanctions.
The inaction has drawn the attention of House Republicans, who are leading an impeachment inquiry into the president’s ties to overseas business dealings of his relatives.
Baturina, the widow of the late Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov, She amassed a fortune of $1.3 billion Through real estate and investments, he dined with Hunter Biden and then-Vice President Joe Biden at least once at Cafe Milano in D.C.
For unknown reasons, she transferred $3.5 million in February 2014 to a company run by Hunter and his colleague Devon Archer.
Archer told Congress in July that he didn’t know the reason for the transfers, but bank records show more than $2.75 million of them went to another entity, which Archer named Hunter Biden. It is said that he jointly owned it with Mr.
Archer testified that Baturina had separately invested nearly $120 million in his company, Rosemont Realty, and that Hunter Biden was also briefly involved with that company.
Archer told Congress that in the spring of 2014, Baturina attended a dinner at Café Milano with then-Vice President Biden and Hunter’s Kazakh associates.
She also allegedly attended a dinner at the same restaurant in April 2015 with Joe Biden and Hunter Biden, as well as a Ukrainian and a Kazakh man who were patrons of her second son at the time, an eyewitness told the Post. , who confirmed that the email about the dinner came from Hunter’s discarded laptop.
According to Hunter’s laptop records, Hunter met with Yevtushenkov at least twice.
Mr. Yevtushenkov’s vast business empire, Sistema, owns MTS, Russia’s largest mobile phone provider, and until 2022, Russian rocket and radar maker RTI and military drone maker. A certain Kronstadt also owned one.
Yevtushenkov is It is believed to be worth about $1.7 billion And in 2022 reduced his ownership in Systema By giving his son Ferris a 10% stake in the company, he increased it to 49.2%, apparently in response to British sanctions.
“I think he should be sanctioned,” Michael McFaul, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia under President Barack Obama, told the Post last year. “I don’t understand why he didn’t do that.”
Yevtushenkov said he tried to work with Hunter Biden because the Justice Department is investigating MTS for paying about $1 billion in bribes to Uzbek officials between 2004 and 2012. has been done.
Yevtushenkov has acknowledged meeting Hunter Biden at the Ritz-Carlton in Manhattan in March 2012 and, according to laptop records, met him in January 2013 before considering commercial real estate development. They are shown reuniting at D.C.’s Café Milano (the same restaurant where Joe Biden allegedly attended other oligarchic rallies). The next day in Northern Virginia.
“I asked [Yevtushenkov], ‘Why are you doing this? ‘On the front end before they even realize they’re going to buy a property,’ a source told the Post.
“He told me very clearly, you know… ‘I think it would be good to have a good relationship with this person… maybe he’d like us back. , maybe we can do him a favor…I told him so.” It’s not the way we do things in America, though. [but] He basically laughed at me and told me I was so naive. ”
MTS ultimately settled Uzbekistan corruption case with Trump Justice Department in 2019 and paid a fine of $850 million.
